Southwest/ School notes.

Olympia Fields The Rich Township District 227 Board...

November 15, 2000

Olympia Fields

The Rich Township District 227 Board approved a bid of $235,665 from Chicago Heights Construction Co. for repair of two schools' ventilation systems and approved a projected $30 million tentative levy for 2000. The removal and installation of new air handling units at Rich Central and Rich South High Schools, which will be done during Christmas and summer vacations, will be paid for from the district's life safety funds. The Chicago Heights bid was the lowest of four bids received. The systems are about 45 years old and need constant repairs, according to Wayne Mann, interim business manager for the district. The board also approved a $30 million tentative levy that would be about 4 percent more than 1999's. The amount of new growth in the district for 1999 is estimated at about $15 million, and the equalized assessed valuation for 2000 is expected to be $774 million, an increase of 1.07 percent over 1999. Residents would pay about $36 in taxes for each $100,000 of equalized assessed valuation under the projected levy. The levy is used to fund education, operations, building and maintenance and other services provided by the district.

Mokena

The Mokena Elementary District 159 Board recently approved a proposed $7 million tax levy. The 2000 tax levy allocates: $5.35 million for the education fund; $775,000 for operations, building and maintenance; $351,000 for the transportation fund; $90,000 for working cash; $124,850 for the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund; $158,100 for Social Security; $96,540 for tort immunity; $65,000 for special education; and $29,000 for fire prevention safety. An additional $1.2 million will be levied for debt service. A public hearing to discuss the levy is set for 6:55 p.m. Dec. 13 at Mokena Junior High School, 11331 W. 195th St., Mokena. Also, the Mokena Education Foundation presented the board with a check for $15,000, the proceeds of a recent fundraising dinner dance. The money will be used for technology for the district's new junior high school.

New Lenox

Lincoln-Way area 8th graders will take a new high school placement test in January. After discussions with junior high school principals in area public and parochial schools in New Lenox, Frankfort, Mokena, Manhattan and Frankfort Square, Lincoln-Way administrators have decided to replace the California Achievement Test with the Explore test designed by ACT (American College Testing), Supt. Lawrence Wyllie recently told the school board. Administrator Glenn Duckworth said the Explore test is less time consuming, provides more information about a student's strengths and weaknesses and aids in education and career planning. Wyllie also told school board members that attendance at Lincoln-Way High School has been 95 percent in the first quarter of the school year. The official enrollment as of Sept. 30 was 4,989.

Tinley Park

Kirby School District 140 has won the Bright Star award for the fifth year in a row, Supt. Arnold Drzonek told the Board of Education during a recent meeting. Bright Star is issued by the Kansas City-based SchoolSearch firm, which provides school district information to relocating families, corporations, real estate brokers and others. Its formula recognizes schools whose students rank in the upper one-third of Illinois school districts but whose expenditures per pupil rank in the lower one-quarter of those same districts. The award comes at a time when the district is doing its best to make the most out of the funding it does have, school officials noted. Additions for Prairie View and Grissom Junior High Schools are under way, and foundations for both new structures have been set, assistant superintendent of finance Robert Anderson said. The additions have been funded by state construction grants and local impact fees. Kirby sought an additional construction grant for one of its elementary schools earlier this year but did not rank high enough on the state's list to receive it. Drzonek has said that Kirby will likely apply for another grant in 2001 to continue school expansion.